Islamic neo-traditionalism, also known as WasatismQadhi, Yasir (2023). ''Contemporary Issues in the Muslim Ummah: Modern Muslim Movements.'' The Islamic Seminary of America (TISA) is a contemporary strand of

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...

that emphasizes adherence to the four principal Sunni schools of law (''Madhahib''), belief in one of the

Ash'ari Ash'arism (; ) is a school of theology in Sunni Islam named after Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari, a Shāfiʿī jurist, reformer (''mujaddid''), and scholastic theologian, in the 9th–10th century. It established an orthodox guideline, based on ...

Maturidi Maturidism () is a school of theology in Sunni Islam named after Abu Mansur al-Maturidi. It is one of the three creeds of Sunni Islam alongside Ash'arism and Atharism, and prevails in the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. Al-Maturidi codified a ...

and

Athari Atharism ( / , "of ''athar''") is a school of theology in Sunni Islam which developed from circles of the , a group that rejected rationalistic theology in favor of strict textualism in interpreting the Quran and the hadith. Adherents of Ath ...

creeds (''Aqaid'') and the practice of

Sufism Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

(''Tasawwuf''), which Islamic neo-traditionalists consider to be the Sunni tradition.

Terminology

Islamic neo-traditionalism is also known as Wasatism (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: ), and both terms are used interchangeably to refer to the strand of Islam which is the ''

via media ''Via media'' is a Latin phrase meaning "the middle road" or the "way between (and avoiding or reconciling) two extremes". Its use in English is highly associated with Anglican self-characterization, or as a philosophical maxim for life akin to t ...

'' between traditional, textually-orientated strands such as Maddhabist

traditionalism Traditionalism is the adherence to traditional beliefs or practices. It may also refer to: Religion * Traditional religion, a religion or belief associated with a particular ethnic group * Traditionalism (19th-century Catholicism), a 19th-cen ...

Salafism The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a Islamic fundamentalism, fundamentalist Islamic revival, revival movement within Sunni Islam, originating in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. The name "''Salafiyya''" ...

and anti-traditional, culturally-orientated strands such as

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

and

progressivism Progressivism is a Left-right political spectrum, left-leaning political philosophy and Reformism, reform political movement, movement that seeks to advance the human condition through social reform. Adherents hold that progressivism has unive ...

. Yasir Qadhi, an

Islamic scholar In Islam, the ''ulama'' ( ; also spelled ''ulema''; ; singular ; feminine singular , plural ) are scholars of Islamic doctrine and law. They are considered the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam. "Ulama ...

identified as an Islamic neo-traditionalist and a Wasatist, has stated that the movement "tries to balance text and context" and "has an interplay between the classical tradition and

modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular Society, socio-Culture, cultural Norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the ...

". Fauzi Abdul Hamid of the

Middle East Institute The Middle East Institute (MEI) is a non-profit, non-partisan think tank and cultural center in Washington, D.C., founded in 1946. It seeks to "increase knowledge of the Middle East among the United States citizens and promote a better understan ...

wrote that "contrary in a way to the stereotypical picture of traditionalists, who cling to the ''closing of the gates of ''

Ijtihad ''Ijtihad'' ( ; ' , ) is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a legal question. It is contrasted with '' taqlid'' ( ...

'' (opining)'', neo-traditionalists do not deny the need for and wisdom of dispensing with ''

Taqlid ''Taqlid'' (, " imitation") is an Islamic term denoting the conformity of one person to the teaching of another. The person who performs ''taqlid'' is termed ''muqallid''. The definite meaning of the term varies depending on context and age. Cla ...

'' (following a school of law) when conditions beckon and are ripe for it. Neo-traditionalists accept the shortcomings of traditionalism that have led to passivity and stagnation, and admit that latter-day Sufis suffer from a perception deficit among the larger Muslim populace as not being down-to-earth enough to problematise the inner malaise of the Ummah."

Beliefs

Islamic neo-traditionalists believe Islam fundamentally consists of three concepts: ''

Fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...

'', ''

Aqidah ''Aqidah'' (, , pl. , ) is an Islamic term of Arabic origin that means "creed". It is also called Islamic creed or Islamic theology. ''Aqidah'' goes beyond concise statements of faith and may not be part of an ordinary Muslim's religious ins ...

'' and ''Tasawwuf''. ''Fiqh'' is regarded as being delineated by the Shafiʽi,

Hanafi The Hanafi school or Hanafism is the oldest and largest Madhhab, school of Islamic jurisprudence out of the four schools within Sunni Islam. It developed from the teachings of the Faqīh, jurist and theologian Abu Hanifa (), who systemised the ...

Maliki The Maliki school or Malikism is one of the four major madhhab, schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas () in the 8th century. In contrast to the Ahl al-Hadith and Ahl al-Ra'y schools of thought, the ...

and

Hanbali The Hanbali school or Hanbalism is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence, belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It is named after and based on the teachings of the 9th-century scholar, jurist and tradit ...

schools of law and ''Aqidah'' by the

, and

creeds. The neo-traditionalist understanding of the religion is therefore thought to lie with the scholars of these fields who possess an unbroken scholarly lineage or chain of transmission (''Isnad'') to their classical authorities, which ultimately end with

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

. A scholar's authoritativeness is based on whether or not he has been issued an ''

Ijazah An ''ijazah'' (, "permission", "authorization", "license"; plural: ''ijazahs'' or ''ijazat'') is a license authorizing its holder to transmit a certain text or subject, which is issued by someone already possessing such authority. It is particul ...

'' by his teachers, which lists their scholarly chain and grants him a license to teach on its authority. Neo-traditionalists argue against the position that following a school of law (''

'') is unnecessary, claiming that it implies previous generations of Sunni Muslims were mistaken in their understanding of Islam, that it is impossible to derive correct rulings without relying on a school's legal principles, and that it will lead to laypeople making ''

'', thereby irreversibly disrupting Sunni legal unity and introducing new practices to the religion. Islamic neo-traditionalists are open to the changing of Fiqh and the transpiring of new Ijtihad to combat new challenges in the contemporary world Muslims now live in. Neo-traditionalism overlaps with

in its core emphasis and promotion of modernist view points, '' Fiqh al-Aqalliyat'' (minority jurisprudence), and, to a certain degree, non-denominationalism.

History

Islamic neo-traditionalism emerged in the West during the 1990s following the return of several Muslim scholars who had studied at traditionalist centres of Islamic learning in the Arab world, including

Hamza Yusuf Hamza Yusuf (born Mark Hanson; 1958) is an American Islamic scholar, neo-traditionalist, and co-founder of Zaytuna College. He is a proponent of classical learning in Islam and has promoted Islamic sciences and classical teaching methodologies ...

, Abdal Hakim Murad and Umar Faruq Abdullah, who intended to disseminate the knowledge they had learned throughout their communities. Younger scholars who are linked to neo-traditionalism includ
Hasan Spiker
an
Yahya Rhodus
Critiques of

are made by some members in the movement, which is held responsible for spiritual decay, the decline of Islamic metaphysics and the rise of liberal and progressive Islamic movements. Western neo-traditionalists have established their own religious educational institutes, including

Zaytuna College Zaytuna College is a private liberal arts college in Berkeley, California and is the first accredited Muslim undergraduate college in the United States. It was built on the foundation of an educational institute, founded in 1996 by Hamza Yus ...

, Cambridge Muslim College and the online Islamic seminary SeekersGuidance.

Politics

Following the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...

, some neo-traditionalist scholars adopted a counter-revolutionary politically quietist stance citing the prohibition of resistance against ruling authorities by a number of pre-modern Sunni

jurists A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a legal practition ...

and concerns that political upheaval would empower Islamic fundamentalist groups such as the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

. Their subsequent alliance with the governments of the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

and

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, and their silence towards or outright approval of their actions, attracted criticism, particularly the conduct of Ali Gomaa and Hamza Yusuf after the August 2013 Rabaa massacre. Neo-traditionalist Islamic scholar Ramadan al-Bouti was a supporter of the

Assad regime Ba'athist Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR), was the Syrian state between 1963 and 2024 under the one-party rule of the Syrian regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. From 1971 until its collapse in 2024, it was rule ...

, and criticized anti-government protests and urged demonstrators not to follow "calls of unknown sources that want to exploit mosques to incite seditions and chaos in Syria."Sheikh al-Bouti, the Syrian Sunni cleric who stood by Assad
alarabiya.net, 22 March 2013 However, other neo-traditionalist scholars such as Muhammed al-Yaqoubi advocated for the removal of dictators such as

Bashar al-Assad Bashar al-Assad (born 11September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator Sources characterising Assad as a dictator: who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until fall of the Assad regime, his government ...

. According to Mustafa Kabha and Haggai Erlich, the Islamic political organization al-Ahbash adheres to Wasatism in their political-religious methodology, citing their opposition to traditionalist and Salafi thinkers such as

Sayyid Qutb Sayyid Ibrahim Husayn Shadhili Qutb (9 October 190629 August 1966) was an Egyptian political theorist and revolutionary who was a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood. As the author of 24 books, with around 30 books unpublished for differe ...

, ibn Abdul Wahhab, and

Abul A'la Maududi Abul A'la al-Maududi (; – ) was an Islamic scholar, Islamist ideologue, Muslim philosopher, jurist, historian, journalist, activist, and scholar active in British India and later, following the partition, in Pakistan. Described by Wilfred C ...

, criticism of extremism and zeal, as well as their ardent focus on good behaviour and

Islamic morality In Islam, morality in the sense of "non practical guidelines" or "specific norms or codes of behavior" for good doing (as opposed to Islamic ethics, ethical theory) are primarily based on the Quran and the Hadith – the central religious texts ...

, the latter of which is largely absent from the modernist and progressive strands within Islam, and Thomas Pierret also identified the al-Ahbash as adherents of this methodology, although he used the alternate term neo-traditionalist to describe them.

Contemporary neo-traditionalists

* Abdal Hakim Murad *

* Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad * Muhammad Said Ramadan al-Bouti * Ali Gomaa * Umar bin Hafiz *

Umar Faruq Abd-Allah Umar Faruq Abd-Allah (born Wymann-Landgraf; born 1948) is an American Schools of Islamic theology, Islamic theologian, author, spiritual guide, and educator. Biography Umar Faruq Abd-Allah was born in 1948 in Columbus, Nebraska, Columbus, Ne ...

* Abdallah bin Bayyah * Ali al-Jifri * Muhammad al-Yaqoubi *

Nuh Ha Mim Keller Nuh Ha Mim Keller (born 1954) is an American Islamic scholar, teacher and author who lives in Amman. He is a translator of a number of Islamic books. Life and scholarship Keller studied philosophy and Arabic language, Arabic at the University ...

* Yasir Qadhi * Faraz Rabbani *

Abdullah al-Harari 'Abdullah al-Harari () (1906 – September 2, 2008) was a Harari muhaddith and scholar of Islamic jurisprudence. He lived and taught in Beirut, Lebanon. History Al-Harariyy was born in 1906 in Harar, Ethiopia. In 1983, he founded Al-Ahbash, ...

* Shadee Elmasry

References